'Kansas City' on Serious Eats

While nearly every Kansas City joint with a smoker will sell you the entire barnyard, each barbecue spot has its own specialty that should be the start and end of your order. And KC has more than just barbecue to offer. Consider this your guide to Kansas City's best meals, plus where to go for beer, cocktails, and more. More

I have only disappointed my wife a handful of times in the 15 years we have known each other. And I can admit that I still regret that it took me a year to introduce her to the pork loin sandwich ($5.20) at Kitty's Cafe in Kansas City. More

Captain Ahab had Moby Dick, giving birth to the notion of "the white whale" as a goal to be chased to the ends of the earth, self-destruction be damned. Herman Melville was able to spin one version of the Great American Novel out of that tale. My white whale, over the course of several Christmases in the Kansas City area, has been Stonewall Inn Pizza. Kansas City is land-locked, of course, which makes this tale less tragic, thank goodness, and unlike Melville, I'm only able to spin a short blog post out of it. More

These ribs start with a sweet and spicy rub and are finished with a thick sauce which produces that sticky layer that defines Kansas City-style ribs. Here are your finger-lickin' good plans for Memorial Day weekend. Oh, and don't forget to grab a beer. More

I'll wager that when most people think of barbecue sauce, they're picturing a thick, sweet, and tangy tomato mixture—that's Kansas City style and probably the most fitting place to start this exploration. More

"Would those of you who can tell the difference between a McRib sandwich and real barbecue please stand up and raise your right hand?" At the behest of the Kansas City Barbecue Society and by invitation from the Jack Daniel Distillery, I pushed back my seat and joined a sizable crowd of barbecue lovers in Lynchburg, Tennessee, to become a newly minted KCBS judge. With hands in the air, we took the oath. More

Sometimes, when I'm packing for a trip I think about not bringing my exercise gear. And then I think again, because I realize when I'm eating my way through Kansas City barbecue and fried chicken joints that not exercising every day would be a form of diet suicide. It would be like giving in, like the worst kind of surrender, without dignity or grace. More

In sharing my weight struggles with the serious eaters in this column, I have learned so much from all the comments, even those that betray a certain skepticism about the whole process. Most of all, I have learned that I am not alone in my struggles, and that realization alone is worth, well, a ton. So you know what? I'm going to get on Thinner and reveal my weight this morning, just as I've done every Friday morning for the last 141 weeks. More

Town Topic opened its doors in 1937, but the locations hamburger heritage is even older than that—the turrets on the corners of the little shack on Broadway betray the fact that it was once a White Castle. And the hamburgers they serve there, more than 70 years later, are a cultural relic from that era: Small pucks of beef are pressed in to a searing griddle with onions, while the bun is steamed on top. More

"I dream of those burned edges. Sometimes, when I'm in some awful overpriced restaurant in some strange town—all of my restaurant-finding techniques having failed, so that I'm left to choke down something that costs $7 and tastes like a medium-rare sponge—a blank look comes over my face: I have just realized that at that very moment someone in Kansas City is being given those burned edges free." —Calvin Trillin on the burnt ends from Arthur Bryant's.More

I recently took a road trip that found me, amongst other places, in Memphis, Tennessee, and Kansas City, Missouri. I ate a bunch of burgers on the trip, but there were a couple of places that I thought looked interesting... More

If you're a food-loving road-tripper driving cross country, you have to make a detour in Kansas City for some barbecue, right? A visit to Arthur Bryant's and Gates Bar-B-Q was in ordered, topped off with a double-scoop at Murray's Ice Cream & Cookies. More

[Flickr: Pete Zarria] It may not be a drool-inducing burger, but I thought this photo of the fading neon sign of Town Topic Hamburgers in Kansas City, Missouri, by Pete Zarria on Flickr was lovely enough to point out.... More

The Wilmington Star News reports on a recent WTF pizza moment at the Currituck BBQ Classic in Corolla, North Carolina: When I heard [Chris] Marks say that at the recent Currituck BBQ Classic in Corolla, I thought, "He's smoking something." But Marks was serious. The owner of Kansas City's Three Little Pigs BBQ & Catering told me he simply places rolled-out pizza crust directly on the smoker grate, adds sauce, cheese and toppings and then bakes the pizza for about 45 minutes at about 275 degrees. The crust, he says, comes out cracker crisp, the pie smoky and flavorful. Related... More

Photograph by Chris Oberholtz of Kansas City Star Kansas City Star has awesome photos of the Burger Mobile that was unveiled yesterday at the Westport Flea Market in Kansas City, Missouri. They also have some backstory on the vehicle... More

Westport Flea Market in Kansas City, Missouri, is celebrating its 28th birthday today and tomorrow, June 15 to 16, by selling burgers and beer at 1981 prices—$2.99 for burgers and fries, and starting at 99 cents for beers. Profits will... More

Photograph from Carol Mitchell on Flickr I grew up in Kansas City, a city that some folks here in my current place of residence view as hicksville. (It's not.) So I love what Fat City blogger Owen Morris has to say about an Overland Park, Kansas, man whose neighbors are giving him (chicken)s**t about his chicken coop: "This means Kansas City is on the cutting edge, not stuck in the rural past."... More

Photograph from TheJosephBoys on Flickr Barbecue has inspired all sorts of mania, but has it gone too far when a modern dance company bases a piece on the iconic American food? In mid May, dance students at the Wylliams/Henry Contemporary Dance Company in Kansas City will be performing the Gates B-B-Que Suite, inspired by Gates Bar-B-Q and Kansas City jazz: The piece is described as a "loving and playful look" at the tradition of Kansas City barbeque. Set in a barbeque restaurant, the choreography is intended to capture the "microcosm of society" in dance as people socialize and eat this favorite Kansas City cuisine. Performances will be at 7:30 p.m. on May 14 and at 8 p.m. on May... More

That's 1300 percent of the check. Eric Hawthorne, a pre-med student and single father of one, has no idea why the couple he waited on left it. And, no, it wasn't a mistake. Here's the video. [via MenuPages Philly]... More